Broadband

On February 22, 2012, President Obama signed into law the "Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012," which included provisions to create a nationwide interoperable high speed wireless broadband network to ensure police, fire, emergency medical, and other vital public safety officials had dedicated technology to perform their duties safety.

This law provided funding and governance to the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to establish FirstNet as an independent authority for the implementation of Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN) initiative.

FirstNet will hold the spectrum license for the network and is tasked with the building, deployment, and operation of the network.

The Governor of Wisconsin identified the Interoperability Council (IC) as the states NPSBN coordinator and Point of Contact (POC) with FirstNet. The IC recognized the need to create and establish the Public Safety Wireless Broadband Workgroup (PSWBW) to develop and make recommendations to the IC relating to NPSBN initiatives.

The creation, deployment, and operation will be complex, and require collaboration and participation among all stakeholders at the national, state, and local level.